How Animals Talk 



force in itself, a force to be reckoned with, apart 

 from the cry or the look by which it is expressed ; 

 that all such emotions project themselves outward ; 

 and that possibly, or very probably, there is some 

 definite medium to convey them, as an unknown 

 medium which we call "ether" conveys the waves 

 of light. 



It is true that we habitually receive such emo- 

 tional impulses from others by means of our eyes 

 or ears; but sometimes we apparently imbibe 

 them through our skin, as Anthony Trollope said 

 he learned Latin, and once in a way we receive them 

 from another without knowing or thinking of the 

 process at all. It is noteworthy that the most 

 companionable people in the world are silent 

 people, especially a silent friend, and that the 

 silence of any man is invariably more eloquent 

 than his speech. The silence of one man rests you 

 like a melody ; the silence of another bores you to 

 yawning, perhaps because it is a "dead" silence; 

 the quietude of a third excites your curiosity to 

 such an extent that, for once in your life, you 

 behave like a perfectly natural animal; that is, 

 you go round the silent one, as it were, view him 

 mentally from all sides, sniff at his opinions from 

 leeward, whir your wings in his face like a sparrow, 

 or stamp your foot at him like a rabbit all this 

 to stir him up and to uncover what interesting 



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